


Make Up and Kiss

by vaselineisalie



Category: Holby City
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Makeup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 09:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8281763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaselineisalie/pseuds/vaselineisalie
Summary: Serena helps Bernie put on make up.
Oneshot.





	

**Author's Note:**

> In my mind this would set somewhere in between Indefensible and It Tolls For Thee but tbh there are many places it could fit.
> 
> Thank you to @PrincessHanHan (Twitter) for beta-ing!

Bernie sighed as she threw the brush back into her small cosmetics bag. She pulled a third make up wipe from the packet on her desk and scrubbed at the make up covering her already fairly raw skin. Bernie didn’t often spend much time applying make up but she was willing to try anything to make the evening’s date go better than the others she’d had that month, and if fitting into the conventional image of attractiveness had any chance of helping, she would give it a go. But the difficult shift she’d just had and the pressure of trying to look “perfect” had just left her frustrated and it really wasn’t going very well.

Ignoring the footsteps approaching the office, Bernie fumbled with a tube of mascara, which was several months old and didn’t smell particularly good. Just as she brought the wand up to her eyelashes and began to apply it, the swift movement of the door being opened to her right made her jump, and her hand slipped, knocking the mascara-covered brush into her eye.

It stung. Bernie tried to act normally, smiling quickly up at Serena as she blinked rapidly and avoided making eye contact. As Serena sat down at her desk, Bernie’s eyes began to water and she ducked her head down behind the monitor of her computer so Serena couldn’t see the tears and mascara running down half of her face. Bernie rubbed her eye, but if anything, it just agitated it and encouraged more tears to form.

Serena was trying to ignore Bernie’s sniffs as the last few tears finished washing the mascara out of her eye, but she couldn’t resist glancing over, watching Bernie trying to sort herself out. She too was feeling a little tense after the challenging trauma cases they’d had during the shift and she didn’t struggle to sense the frustration Bernie was feeling as she tried to re-apply what the tears had washed away. For a few minutes the two sat in silence, except for Bernie’s occasional sighs and the click of Serena’s mouse.

“It’s no good, I can’t do this!” exclaimed Bernie, dropping whatever brush she was using down onto the desk and sighing deeply. “I’m not going, I can’t meet Mr. Steven Carter, successful lawyer and occasional tennis player, when I’m in this state.”

“In what state? You’re not going to cancel over a bit of make up, surely? I never took you as someone so keen to conform to beauty standards, Ms. Wolfe.”

“It’s... it’s not that. It’s not about how I look at all, really, I just wanted to get it right. But I’m stressed, I’m tired, I don’t know what I’m going to talk to him about - I’m not sure that woman I went on a date with last week had a vocabulary that extended beyond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and I don’t know-”

“Bernie,” Serena began, searching for her friend’s eyes as she babbled. She gave a nervous laugh as she continued, “Bernie, you’re rambling. Calm down a little, you’re making me stressed just listening to you.”

Serena watched as Bernie slowly inhaled, gently closing her eyes, then exhaled, breathing a quiet “sorry” as she did so.

“No, Bernie, it’s okay, you clearly want the start of your evening to go to plan. Look, if it will make you feel better, I don’t mind helping with whatever it is you’re trying to do to your face.

Bernie dared to glance up to look at Serena’s face before responding. “That – that would be, well... y-yeah, yes please.”

“Right, well I suggest we start from scratch, so you go and wash that all off while I just grab something,” Serena said as she jumped up, “I’ll meet you in the toilets in a couple of minutes.”

* * *

 Serena entered to find Bernie perched on the sink counter, her long legs stretched out in front of her, toes pointing towards the floor. She walked over and placed the rather large make up bag she was carrying next to Bernie and carefully unzipped it. Bernie raised her eyebrows as she watched and Serena felt she had to explain.

“I like to be prepared. I know it’s supposed to be unhygienic to share make up but you don’t mind, do you?”

“No, no, not at all.”

“Neither of us seem to have a foundation brush, so fingers it shall be,” Serena said as she rinsed her hands under a tap and wiped them dry on her shirt.

Bernie took out a tube of her own foundation and offered it to Serena. Serena took the tube in one hand and used the other to reach up and tuck Bernie’s hair behind her ears. Bernie’s eyes followed the slow-moving hand and she smiled softly as the action tickled her a little. Barely breaking eye contact, Serena opened the tube and dotted the liquid around Bernie’s face. Bernie inhaled sharply as she felt the cold substance on her skin but relaxed as she felt Serena begin to spread it gently across her skin with soft, warm fingers. Serena rested her bent fingers against Bernie’s cheek as she used her thumb to wipe away the excess foundation from the area around her nose.

“I’m just going to-” Serena started, but instead of explaining, she just reached down to Bernie’s neck to bring the colour down a little as it wasn’t a perfect match for Bernie’s skin and she wanted to make the slightly different tones fade into each other.

She then tapped Bernie’s face gently to disguise any finger marks she might have left and looked back up into Bernie’s eyes, signalling that that step was complete.

Their gaze lingered a little too long as they each got caught up in the other’s eyes.

“I-I, erm, eyes,” Serena began, and Bernie tilted her head slightly in confusion. “Eyeshadow, yes, let’s do that next.”

Serena looked down quickly and began to rummage through her bag. She took out various brushes – Bernie wasn’t really sure what the difference was – and then opened a small eyeshadow palette to reveal a few different warm shades, mostly brown and some a little sparkly.

Feeling a little embarrassed by the intimacy of what was happening, Bernie chose to close her eyes and let Serena pick out a few different shades to apply. During this process, she could sense that Serena had moved closer to her and she felt her cheeks warming a little bit. Soon, Bernie felt a slightly fluffier brush move across her eyelids and then heard the words, “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

Bernie tried to read the expression on Serena’s lips but the ever-so-slightly mischievous glint in her eyes told Bernie more.

“Well I was going to move on to blush next, but I’m not sure you need it,” Serena said, raising her right eyebrow as she watched Bernie turn redder. “I don’t want you to get poked in the eye for the second time today, so you can do some mascara while I find some lipstick. There’s a specific one I have in mind.”

Serena searched through her make up bag while Bernie very carefully put on some mascara and as Serena was still looking when she’d finished, she also decided to powder her face.

So it was now just the lipstick left. Serena had chosen a very soft pink coloured lipstick, and Bernie parted her lips as Serena took the lid off and twisted it up. She brought the creamy product up to her lips and applied it with precision, outlining her cupid’s bow and making sure it was even.

As Serena twisted the lipstick back down and put lid back on, Bernie hopped off of the counter and turned to look in the mirror.

“Wow, Serena, you’re really good at this. I’m worried I’m going to ruin your professional work during my date.”

“Well,” Serena began, stepping forward so her body was almost against Bernie’s back “I do happen to know a really good trick that would help.”

Serena saw in the mirror as Bernie raised her eyebrows.

“Go on then, tell me.”

Serena leaned closer in so that her lips were nearly touching Bernie’s ears. She whispered, “by ruining it now.”

Bernie slowly turned round to face Serena and opened her mouth to ask what she meant, but instead her lips were met by the other woman’s crashing against her.

The kiss was gentle to begin with; neither of them could quite believe that it was actually happening, until it began to pick up more pace. Bernie, eyes still closed, pushed Serena backwards, towards the opposite wall. However, just as Serena felt something digging into her back, they both jumped apart as they heard the hand dryer come on.

After the initial surprise they both smiled, brown eyes connecting again.

“Maybe the bathroom isn’t quite the right place for this.”

“If it takes me wearing lipstick for you to ruin in order to get you to kiss me, I’ll happily stay here re-applying it forever.”

“Ms. Wolfe, don’t you dare think that we need to do all this each time we want to kiss. It was fun, and it gave me an excuse to stare at you, but I know I’ll want to kiss you either way.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the random woman who was putting on make up on the bus yesterday morning. (She also uses the same mascara as me.)
> 
> It's strange that I'm writing it this week when I've been wearing so much less make up than usual.


End file.
